Chapter 30 #2
"Dickness?" he repeated like it was a bad taste. "Sometimes I do not understand you Americans and your choice of words. You make sayings up as you go."
I laughed. "Yes, your default personality is a dick. It means you can be an angry Russian asshole sometimes."
He side-eyed me. He knew I was right based on that look alone. "I swear, your goal since coming here is to aggravate me as much as you can. Why are all women the same? Every one of you females are born with a brazen tongue us men want to cut out. "
"Oh, so you expect us to just allow you to speak any which way you want and we take it? Typical man." I patted his chest. "Put me down."
He ignored me and kept walking.
"You know, this is why I sometimes call you Captain Dickhead in my head."
He feigned a grimace, and I smiled from ear to ear. He wouldn't stay mad at me for long. "Put me down. I'm capable of walking to my car."
"We are not going to your car, we are going to mine. I will pick up your slack today," he mumbled under his breath.
"Pick up my slack today? This is your fault, Kova. You just admitted it. Jesus Christ. Just put me down."
Kova pushed the door open with his back and carried me to his car. He opened the passenger door and carefully deposited me onto the seat. Within minutes, we were on the road.
"No more talking. Your voice is giving me a headache."
I glared at him. "It's Sunday. Surely you have plans with your girlfriend."
He didn’t answer me.
"Why are you doing this?"
Kova's cell phone rang. It was hooked up to his Bluetooth so the ringing echoed loudly in the small space. The caller ID popped up on his dash. Katja. He declined it immediately.
"How am I going to get to practice tomorrow since my truck is at World Cup?"
Again, he ignored me and that fired me up.
"What is your damn problem?" I yelled, but he continued to ignore me and pulled into a gas station. He picked up two bags of ice and placed them in his trunk, then drove in the direction of my condo.
"See, this is the exact scenario where I call you Captain Dickhead in my head."
He stayed quiet. His cell rang again, and again he declined it.
I huffed under my breath with a shake of my head. "You know, I should've just lied and yes'd you to death. Then we wouldn't be in this situation together." I glanced over at him. "From now on, I'll just respond with yes to every question."
"I would prefer that, but we both know you will never hold true to it."
"Ah, so he speaks again. And here I thought you forgot your English. You're not coming in."
"Too bad. I am doing my job. I got you into this…condition." He waved his hand toward me. "I will help you get out of it."
Lowering my voice, I said, "I don't want you coming up to my condo." Didn't he know by now that nothing good could come from us being alone?
Kova parked his car and turned off the ignition. "I am."
My jaw slackened. "You can't just barge into my home whenever you feel like it."
Kova sighed and ran a hand down his face.
He stared ahead at the wall of trees. "Adrianna, I do not want to come inside, I have better things I could be doing with my time, but you leave me no choice.
If you have a problem with it, I will call your father and let him speak with you. I am certain he will be on my side."
"You would call my dad, wouldn't you," I stated more than questioned.
"Whatever it takes. Now, can you make it out of the car?"
It wasn't long until we were upstairs and in my unit. Kova had to carry me from the car to the lobby, as I walked slower than an eighty-seven-year-old.
I sat in a daze on the toilet and watched Kova bring in the ice bags and fill the tub.
He ran the cold water and I dreaded what was to come next.
There was so, so much ice. He had bought the twenty pound bags instead of the smaller five pound ones.
Asshole. He rambled on and on about the importance of quick and efficient muscle recovery, but I wasn't listening.
It was nothing I didn't already know. Combined with his thick accent, I could barely hear him over the roar of water and ice anyway.
Kova sat back on the ledge of the tub and glanced over his shoulder. He gazed down my body like he was waiting on an answer. Fatigued, I just nodded. I had no idea what he said.
"Ready?"
I sat up taller at his edgy tone. I just wanted to go to sleep. "Ready as I'll ever be."
Reaching into the convenience store bag, he pulled out a few medicine bottles.
I looked away and eyed the freezing ice water I was about to sink into, trying desperately to mentally prepare for the dreadful temperatures that were about to shock my body.
But I knew no amount of manipulating myself would work for this. It just sucked big time all around.
"Here. Take these." I glanced back at Kova who had his arm stretched out and palm open with a handful of colorful pills and capsules. They looked like multivitamins and a few more of the standard amount of Motrin that I usually took. His other hand held a water bottle.
I folded my palm up and the pills tumbled into my hand. He uncapped the water and handed it to me.
"What's this one?" I pointed to one of the pills.
"Melatonin. It will help you relax and get some rest. It is an all-natural sleep aid. There is also a few naturally extracted fruit supplements and a multivitamin to help with recovery."
I swallowed them all in one shot.
"I can take it from here, Kova. Thank you, though."
"I do not trust you to get in and stay for the correct amount of time. Come on." He reached out to take my hand, but I didn't move. I just stared at his hand. "What is wrong with you?"
"I… I can… I can do it on my own. I appreciate that you're here, I really do, but I got it." I didn’t want him to see my hard nipples when I got out, or for him to wrap me with warmth. I knew myself, and I knew I would sink into him and beg him to hold me.
Kova's Adam's apple bobbed as he frowned down at me. "Do not make me pick you up and drop you in there."
"I will fucking kill you if you do that."
He challenged me. "Do not tempt me, Ria. I will do it."
"Can you just go? This… This is too much." He tilted his head to the side and propped his hands on his hips. "It just feels too intimate to me."
His jaw dropped, and his eyes widened in shock. This was the first time I had ever made him do that. "I know," I said, giving him a halfhearted laugh, "but we should really try to not put ourselves in such situations anymore, Kova."
"You have got to be kidding me. After everything that has happened between us, sitting in an ice bath is too intimate for you? Are you serious right now?"
A faint heat crept into my cheeks. I was embarrassed.
I looked down. "I know it sounds stupid—"
"It is stupid."
"It's just you are being nice and helping me like this… I don't know, Kova, it's too much for me, too much for us. It shows you care, and honestly, I don't want that."
His brows furrowed. "Why do you not want it?
"Because it's not something I'm ever given."
"Ria." His voice rose. "Of course I care about you. I care about all of my gymnasts. I would not be here if I did not."
"Right, but you're not supposed to care this much," I stated.
"Why is it wrong that I do?"
I pulled back. "You don’t see the real issue, do you?"
"No, please enlighten me."
"Because then you have officially crossed the line.
It's one thing to have sex with someone when you're not supposed to, sex doesn't have to come with strings attached.
It's another thing entirely to care for them emotionally.
Whether you want to admit it or not, we're crossing that line. You care for me far more than you’re obligated to; you would not do the same for the other girls. You know I'm right."
Kova flattened his lips and looked away. If I was being honest, I’d admit I cared far more than I should too. I knew in my heart I did. That’s why I was trying to create some distance between us.
When we were together—intimate or just having a conversation—it was explosive, the chemistry combustible. Only we mattered. I got him, he got me. We complimented each other in the most unusual way, and it just worked…when it shouldn’t have.
Kova glanced back at me. The onyx that flickered against the brilliant emerald of his eyes captured my attention. I stared back at him for a moment before he nodded, but just barely.
I knew him well enough to know that would be all the acknowledgment I would get, but now he knew too.